Are the type of eater who can consume a whole jalapeno without wincing? Can you chug a bottle of Tabasco? Do you like the idea of a food so spicy you may start to hallucinate?
Spice-heads, your day has come.
Gourmet tortilla chip maker Pacqui claims to have succeeded where other so-called spicy foods have failed by creating the world’s spiciest chip. It’s so hot that you only get one per package—and it comes in a tiny coffin.
“What was spicy 10 years ago wasn't spicy five years ago. And what was considered spicy five years ago isn’t spicy today,” Pacqui’s brand manager Jeff Day tells foxnews.1eye.us of America’s changing tastebuds. He says his company—which is just a few years old—set out to create a chip so spicy, you only need one to reap the benefits.
(Pacqui/Amplify Snack Brands)
How do you go about creating a chip so hot it actually burns? Start with the world’s hottest pepper.
The new “Carolina Reaper Madness Chip,” which officially hit store shelves Monday, is made with the hottest pepper in the world: the Carolina Reaper. It’s the brainchild of South Carolinian farmer Ed Currie and measures between 1.4 million to 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units. Pepper spray, by comparison, comes in at about 2 million Scoville Units.
“We went through 10 or so different iterations of the chip,” said Day, who personally tested each one. He says the final version received Currie’s approval. “I tasted one or two versions that were too just hot so we did have to scale it back.”
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A few brave foxnews.1eye.us tasters were up for the challenge—and many will never be the same.
“It’s not an enjoyable experience,” said one taster coughing through his first bite.
“It’s like I swallowed a knife,” said another.
Many spicy food aficionados admitted that while the chip wasn’t the absolute spiciest thing they had ever tasted, the heat and smoke from the pepper was strong enough to send their hearts and minds racing for a few hours.
Said one taster about an hour after consuming two chips, “I don’t really know what’s happening to my body right now.”
The chip may be incredibly spicy, but those who had any sense left in their taste buds admitted that it was actually somewhat tasty.
There is a silver lining, however, for those willing to burn off their taste buds. Consumers who record their Carolina Reaper Madness-eating attempt and then send a tweet to @PaquiTortillas with the hashtags #onechipchallenge and #sweeps, they’ll be rewarded with a free bag of chips (not a super spicy variety). They'll also also be entered into a raffle to win a year’s supply of chips and a GoPro.
Pacqui’s Madness chip is $4.99 a pop. And if you’re not quite sure that your tastebuds can handle the searing heat, the company makes plenty of non-spicy chips, too—and they’re all delicious.